Human Activity and Environmental Change

Geovanna Ruiz
24504

Anthropogenic activities have caused a lot of damage to the environment. Ever since the
industrial revolution of the XVIII century, the world has faced a lot of environmental changes.
There is more than one cause of human activities that have caused a great impact at global scale.
At the beginning, people started noticing something was happening when human health was in
danger. People had to learn in the worst way what they were doing with their waste was not
right. Garbage disposal was not properly managed. The industries did not think about the
environment at all, even the politicians. Economic development was all everybody used to think
about. All the actions that were made in the past and all the actions that have been done in the
present have a great impact on the environment.
Pollution is everywhere. Land, water and air pollutions are the three primer problems on
earth. First of all we have land pollution. Population growth and activities as agriculture, crude
petroleum extraction and mining are some of the stress that humans have caused in the soil.
From this group, the greatest environmental impact at global scale in my opinion is mining.
Looking at the bright side, mining have brought employment and economic growth and
development, mostly on South Africa. But, what effects has on our wealth? The process of
mining shafts leaves a weak soil that could collapse. Moreover, a surface disturbance because of
the sink whole, earth tremors, subsidence and the surface could collapse or there might be
ground compression (coal). A lot of solid waste is generated from this process and can interact
with underground water and with the surroundings; it is terrible to leave near this places of
exploitation of minerals. The air is contaminated with the excavations that are needed to make in
the mining process. People who work in the mining industry could face radioactivity of the
minerals extracted. Mercury is bioacumulated in the system of fish and we could eat
contaminated fish. Uranium is an element that could release into the environment through the air
and water as well. Acidic water is a consequence of mining; sulfuric acid reduces de pH of water
and makes it acid. Dissolved acid and heavy metals, are also found in the nearby water.
All these reasons prove the great environmental and health problem that comes with
mining processes. Human activities have caused damage in the environment. People have not
realized how harmful their activities are until now. Mining has damaged the environment in a lot
of ways. But nothing has been done because is one of the best economical activities in the world.

References:
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Prugh, L.R., Stoner, C.J., Epps, C.W., Bean, W.T., Ripple, W.J., Laliberte, A.S., Brashares, J.S.
2009.The Rise of the Mesopredator. BioScience 59: 779-79

Hilson, G. 2002. The environmental impact of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: identifying
problems and possible solutions. The Geographical Journal 168:5772 Gurevitch, J., Padilla,
D.K. 2004. Are invasive species a major cause of extinctions? Trends in Ecology and Evolution
19:470-474

Video Geography-Lithosphere: Environmental Impact of Mining

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxF9l6bedZU

http://www.sustainablebabysteps.com/human-impact-on-environment.html